Thursday, November 23rd marks the 97th Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Thanksgiving morning from 8:30 a.m. to noon live in NYC on CBS, the celebration begins. With 126 spectacles, Macy’s plans to create a spectacular start to Thanksgiving day.
The Beginning
Philadelphia
The idea of a store-sponsored Thanksgiving parade did not begin with Macy’s but with Philadelphia’s Gimbel Brothers Department Store. They staged a Thanksgiving procession in 1920 with 50 people, 15 cars, and a fireman dressed as Santa Claus who welcomed people to the Christmas shopping season.
Unfortunately, Gimbel was not able to continue it’s parade due to it closing down in 1986 when BATUS inc (a British-American tobacco company who acquired Gimbel) were unable to find a buyer for the company. Boscov’s (a family-owned department store based in Reading, Pennsylvania) and WPVI (also known as”6abc”) therefore took over sponsorship. They renamed the event as the 6abc Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
After the bankruptcy of Boscov’s, Ikea became the new sponsor until 2010 when Dunkin Donuts announced they would be the new sponsor for the parade.
New York City
In New York, the only Thanksgiving parade was a peculiar tradition of children painting their faces wearing tattered clothes dressing as “ragamuffins” who asked “Anything for Thanksgiving?” as they went door-to-door asking for pennies, apples, and pieces of candy.
Christmas instead of Thanksgiving
On the morning of November 27, 1924, Macy’s gave the children of New York a particularly special Thanksgiving treat as a police escort led the start of the parade from the intersection of 145th Street and Convent Avenue. Calling the event “Macys Christmas Parade”.
The goal of the parade, proposed by Macy’s advertising manager James A. Goold, was to boost holiday sales and highlight Macy’s extension across 34th Street.
Attractions
Originally, the parade’s main attraction was not the balloons and floats we see today, instead, it was the appearance of animals from the Central Park Zoo.
In 1927 balloon attractions debuted, even then, the balloons were grand – one was a 60-foot dinosaur – and, in those days, they had more to deal with than just high winds and crazy weather: Until 1938, an elevated train ran down Sixth Avenue.
Well-known characters have been part of the parade since that 1927 outing. Felix the Cat was there from the beginning, Mickey Mouse joined in 1934, and “Peanuts” characters, especially Snoopy, made his first appearance in 1968.
Originally, balloons were allowed to float away, and those who found them got a gift certificate from Macy’s. Macy’s continued to send the balloons skyward after the parades until one wrapped itself around an airplane’s wing in 1932, sending the plane into a tailspin.
Learn More about the 2023 Parade
Click here to learn more about this year’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.